The Lost Pages

The Violets are four punk fantasists from London who set out to create a sinister mood with elemental and triumphant pop music. Drawing inspiration from a range of disparate influences such as Neue Deutsche Welle, David Lynch and French Coldwave, The Violets have created a monochrome corner of their own.

They began life as a three piece garage punk ensemble who could barely play their instruments, yet there was a vitality which belied their musical talents and set the band in motion, their overwhemingly energetic live show and the imposing prescence of blonde frontwoman Alexis Mary provided an intensity that was missing from the post-Libertines skiffle bands of London's live circuit.

The Violets play with stripped-down ferocity, they're earthshakingly powerful and equally spatial by turns. Guitarist Joe Daniel is Keith Levene meets The Normal. On 'Descend', built around feedback and shards of melody, he makes his guitar sound like a laptop. Although he lurks stage left, he is central to The Violets' show; it's the dynamic between him and Alexis that allows her Dali-esque visions to succeed. The rhythm section also works with a conflicting dynamic; the melodic basslines wrap themselves around the avant-hardcore of Andrew Moran's drums, working against each other to provide seductively awkward grooves.

Having assumed various different forms in their time together, The Violets debut album shifts comfortably from raucous garage punk (Forget Me Not) to Coldwave disco (Co-Plax, Troubles Of Keneat), via moments of sheer pop (Shade To Be, Parting Glances) tender reflection (Nature Of Obsession) and Hunky Dory-esque classic songwriting (Half Light). By turns they can be disturbing violent art-punk or soothing and melodically poised, yet all the while retaining a sense of otherworldliness that treads a cohesive path through 'The Lost Pages' thirty five minutes.

Having released a clutch of 7" singles on the Angular Recording Corporation, the bands records have garnered airplay on Radio One, MTV2, 6Music and become a staple on the indie dancefloors of clubs such as Trash and Southend's Junk Club - where they met likeminded bands These New Puritans and The Horrors, who have regularly championed The Violets in their interviews.